Star Trek: Nexus Crossings
by Brahma3
Summary: A few months after the Dominion War, Humans from a completely different universe arrive through the wormhole. With this new force entering after fragile peace following the war, how will the Alpha quadrant recieve them?
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: The D.E.S. (Descended Earth Systems) is an original idea I came up with. For awhile I've been wondering how to do a cross over into the Trek universe and the worm hole of DS9 seemed to be the only feasable option. I'll try to answer any questions any may have but please understand this is my first fan fic so I appologize if I don't get all the Trek cannon right. I look foward to the reviews and if I haven't answered a question then assume it'll be answered in the following chapters.

Nexus Crossings

Colonel Kira's log:  
Supplemental,

It's been four months since the Dominion War ended and the treaty signed. For the most part, life has returned to the mundane normalcy with a few exceptions. With Odo still in the Gamma quadrant, Quark seems to be running his bar honestly. I haven't even heard any complaints of him watering down his drinks. There's still some shadows, a few Federation ships still patrol the space around the wormhole at random intervals. In accordance with the treaty, we are no longer 'allowed' to colonize planets in the Gamma quadrant. The Dominion Founders have permitted the people of the Alpha quadrant to continue scientific expeditions provided there aren't any permanent ones. However...

Kira was interrupted by a chime on her desk."Computer, pause log entry." She reached over to tap the comm. switch on her desk, "Yes?"

A small diminutive voice responded, "Colonel? There's a visitor waiting for you outside your office. Shall I send her in?"  
Kira Stood up from her chair and took a moment to straighten her uniform before exhaling sharply, "Send her in."

Kira's mildly annoyed 'business' face was instantly changed to a warm smile when the doors opened for her visitor to walk through."Kasidy!" Kira seemed to smile more so as she rounded the desk to greet her properly.

"Hello Nerys. I was in the neighborhood and thought it would be time to introduce Benny to you." Kasidy gently handed the sleeping baby over to Kira. Staring at the child cradled in her arms she looked up, "Wait Benny?" The baby gurgled and Kira handed him back to his mother.

"After his father," she replied rocking him back to sleep.

Before Kira could ask more, she was interrupted by another chime. "I don't believe this. What?" she asked tapping her commbage.

"Colonel, you'd better come to Ops. The wormhole is opening."

Kira's previously cheerful attitude was replaced by one of concern.

"What's wrong" Kasidy inquired, concern creeping into her own voice.

"We're not expecting another ship to come through for another week," she responded before walking past her. "Report!" Kira commanded stepping into the 'pit'.

"Sensors are detecting a ship coming through," an ensign replied.

"On screen" Kira stated.

A second later the screen winked on to show the wormhole fully open. A moment later, a ship exited and the wormhole closed behind it. It wasn't Dominion, but it wasn't Federation either.

"What kind of ship is that?" she asked out loud.

"It doesn't match anything in our database ma'am," a lieutenant answered.

Collecting her wits, Kira shook her head, "Life signs?"

"I'm picking up over one hundred and twelve biosigns, however there's something in the hull preventing a more detailed scan. The best I can tell you is that they're humanoid ma'am" the lieutenant replied, tapping commands into his station.

Kira nodded, before she could request a hail, the ensign spoke up, "Colonel, the ship is hailing us."

Kira again straightened her uniform and swallowed the lump in her throat. "Alright, put it up," she told the ensign.

The screen changed from a view of the ship, to that of its bridge where a man and a woman stood in the center of the screen. English lettering dominated the wall behind them, but was unreadable with the two people standing between the screen and the man then spoke, "I am captain Ryan Avries of the D.E.S. science vessel Hathaway 2. To whom am I addressing?"

Kira blinked before responding, "I'm Colonel Kira, commander of Deep Space Nine."

Two months prior to the Hathaway 2's arrival at Deep Space Nine...

Captain Avries was in the conference room aboard the Hathaway 2. He stood in front of the holo-window in annoyance. He had set it for the normal exterior view and wished he was out in the stars instead of zero-space where nothing existed. Minutes ago, he watched the Carrier-class vessel that brought him and the ship here, depart. He was entranced with how the eerie glow of its running lights made it seem more like a ghost than a ship, and watched it till it transit back to normal space.

The only other thing to see outside was the station to which the Hathaway docked with ten minutes ago. Avries sighed and switched the holo-window to a recorded view of Earths night sky, and sat down at the conference table to again review the information of his transfer off his ship.

He set the holographic display to book mode. 'Flipping' through the pages, he saw a list of his achievements and ship postings including when he was a helmsman on the Hathaway 2 years ago.

"Crap, has it really been fourteen years?" he asked himself out loud. He flipped back and forth, but couldn't find any reason for being transferred off.

"I believe it's been thirteen years and eleven months since you were posted here," said a voice opposite of the table to Avries.

Startled, Avries looked up before jumping to attention, "Admiral Sir. I'm sorry; I didn't hear you come in."

"That's alright. I may be a bit weighty, but I can move with the best of them," He then laughed at his joke.

"That's an understatement," Avries thought to himself, the admirals stomach bulged over his belt. He may have an admiral's uniform but, clearly spent much of his career behind a desk.

"Yes admiral sir. I was just reviewing my transfer papers and was wondering where it states I'll be transferred to," Avries said.

The Admiral walked over to the holo-window and seemed to consider the night sky of earth before changing it to the real-time view of the station, which he smiled at before turning to Avries. "That's because your transfer hasn't been finalized yet." Avries turned his head slightly in a questioning manner. The admiral continued, "Basically, you're being given' a choice between two commands. You can either take command of an Achilles-class frigate and continue your previous mission. Or you can take command of the ship you're standing on."

Avries thought a moment, "Sir, there is nothing wrong with the Ajax.."

"I'm not saying there is captain. To the contrary, the Ajax is the finest ship of her class I've seen. Including her crew," The admiral said cutting him off.

"Then why sir, I don't understand."

"As you know, for the last two years, since the war ended, we've been slowly phasing out the Attack-class frigate for the newer Achilles design. Simply put, it's your turn. Frankly, I don't understand what the fuss is about. Sure the Achilles-class is smaller, but it's practically the same profile to the Attack-class," he stated bluntly.

Swallowing his creeping anger, Avries calmly replied, "Admiral Sir, with all due respect, the Achilles-class has barely half the armaments let alone not having the capabilities of an Attack-class."

"None of which is truly needed in peace time," the admiral retorted hotly.

Rather than continue the argument, one Avries felt he already lost; he again forced himself to calm down. "So what would I be doing if I choose this ship?" he asked gesturing around him.

The admirals red face instantly brightened as he smiled, "Why you're going to go exploring." He said simply.

Avries was even more confused, "Sir? Surely there are other more qualified personnel for space exploration."

"Sure if this were a typical mission. However, since the invention of the zero-space drive, it's only been a matter of time before command decides to see if we can enter other universes."

Avries turned to the holo-window and called up information on the Hathaway 2, "Then why the Hathaway, sir? It's over fifteen years old, in fact it's older than the Ajax," Avries said staring at the rotating image of the ship.

The admiral changed the image back to the view of the station. "Because there is a chance, however slim, that you'll run into someone out there. Don't you think it will be better diplomatically if a first encounter was with a science vessel instead of a warship? And the reason I've pick this ship instead of a more advanced one is because I have considered the possibility that if they were aggressive then all they will have is an old ship that would've been decommissioned otherwise. And since it's a rather famous ship, it should be good for the crews moral. The fact you used to serve on her only further proves my point." Finished the admiral turned and sat at the conference table expectantly.

Avries reluctantly sat down beside him, "Very well admiral sir, I'll take command of the Hathaway 2."

The admiral smiled, "Wonderful, I knew you would make the right decision." He activated the comm unit on the table, "You can come in now."

The door to the conference slid open and a woman walked in and sat at the table opposite of Avries.

The admiral shook her hand, "Sorry to have kept you waiting. It took longer than I thought to get the captain to accept the mission. Oh, pardon me, allow me to introduce you. This is Captain Ryan Avries." the admiral said gesturing towards Avries.

Avries stood up to reach over and shake her hand. As he did so, he took note of the robes she wore and the orangey yellow tips to her dark hair before finally noticing the slitted pupils of her eyes. "You're.."

"Of the Phoenix Clan? Yes I am," she finished for him with a smile.

"She will be your communications expert in case of unforeseen difficulties," the admiral told Avries.

"It will be a pleasure and an honor to have you aboard," Avries told her. She nodded with another smile.

"Well, now that the formalities are taken care of," the admiral continued. "We can begin with the mission outline. We will send your ship through first captain. Your initial job is to establish a safe area of operations, and deal with negotiations of any local politics as needed. Then once you send the go ahead, we'll send a fleet consisting mostly of cargo, support, merchant, and other science ships. For the interest of not spooking the locals, you'll only have ten or twelve military escorts," the admiral listed. "All the ship will be warp powered for security reasons."

"Of course," Avries retorted as he looked over the information displayed on the holopad being displayed from the table. "So, admiral sir. When do we start the mission?"

"As soon as we fill the ship and personnel roster," he answered. "It'll take time to ferry the needed ships into zero-space and train each crew on the mission parameters."

As the admiral moved to stand, Avries moved to meet him. "It's time I got back to the station, and Avries?"

"Yes sir?"

"Welcome aboard. Now use the time you have to refamiliarize yourself with the ship. You two have a lot of catching up to do."

"Yes sir"

Before he left, the admiral gave Avries a knowing look. Avries returned his look with one of puzzlement until the door to the room slid closed leaving Avries alone with the Phoenix Clan woman. Avries sat back in the chair and stared at the holopad in front of him with a sigh.

The Phoenix Clan woman got up from her chair and walked over beside Avries and placed her hand on his shoulder, "I don't suppose you would honor me by giving me a tour of your ship captain," she asked. He looked up at her warm smile and returned it with one of his own.

"Of course!" he said and escorted her out of the conference room.

Later after showing her half the ship, he began telling her about its history as they walked down the corridor. "The ship was built two years before the war and even now, it's still quite versatile ship I have to admit. It's because of the compartments attached along the hull between the command section and engineering, giving the ship a total of twenty compartments. The compartments can be removed and replaced with a more advantageous one to help it with whatever scientific needs it may have. The large communication dishes on the ships back were intended for deep space use, which was later removed on the updated versions of the Discovery-class. Most of the turrets are placed along the mid-section leaving most of the rear and fore of the ship exposed to attack. Its only other armaments are 'drifter' torpedoes that were originally modified probes that launched from the planetary sensor array."

The Phoenix Clan woman just nodded and made the odd remark on the ships outer colour scheme compared to the other ships in the D.E.S. fleet. "The Admiral told me you used to serve on this ship."

Avries looked at her and saw only an honest smile, "Just barely over a year. My last few months were spent assisting in evacuating colonies and delaying the Jikoran fleets for the evacuations. I made it all the way up to captain on the Hathaway. It was only for a short time till I was offered the Ajax, which I've been in command of up till now. I've come full circle, it seems." Avries said with a sigh.

"Just like the Phoenix Clan," she replied.

"I'm sorry?"

"My people start as children, grow old, then become children again," she said with her ever present smile.

Avries chuckles slightly, "You sure do seem to smile a lot."

"Well, when you can live as long as my people, I would rather be smiling for most of it than frown all the time," she said plainly.

Avries was going to say something but noticed that they arrived at the doors to the bridge. "And so our tour ends with the bridge," he held his hand to the now open door.

She walked in, keeping her smiling face towards him till she was inside. He stood at the archway for a moment, taking a deep breath and adjusting his armguards, he stepped onto the bridge. It had been remodeled since he was last here. Before, the stations had been arranged around the oval shaped walls. Now, they were clustered in the front half in a lowered section. The ships name was proudly displayed in large block letters along the back wall. The captains' chair sat on the ramp before the lowered section as if to overlook the stations in front.

The bridge crew worked silently till one turned and noticed him, "Captain on the bridge!" he said at a heightened volume. Instantly everyone stopped working and stood at attention, facing Avries.

"As you were," the crew returned to their stations to resume work. The one who issued the command walked up to meet him; Avries noticed from the bars on his shoulders that he held the rank of Commander.

"Welcome aboard captain. I'm Commander Arthur Noel, I'll be your XO," he said shaking his hand.

"Thank you Commander. So tell me, what's the ships status?"

"Ship systems are all green sir. And I'm happy to note, the ship doesn't even have any growing pains. Almost as if she rolled out of dry-dock. Kind of surprising really, considering what she's been' through."

"Well, let's hope she continues to surprise us like this then. We have quite an unusual mission ahead of us. I'd hate for her to fail us at a critical moment."

"Couldn't agree with you more sirs. So, do you have any orders? We're currently in the middle of running a ship wide diagnostic to make sure everything checks out."

"After the diagnostics are completed, and if everything checks out, start issuing random drills. It'll be awhile before our mission starts, but I'd like the crew to be ready for whatever is thrown at us."

"Aye sir," Commander Noel responded, and then turned to talk to the lieutenant at the tactical station.

Avries sat in the captains' chair and looked around the bridge again. From his vantage point, he could clearly see the main display of each station. He noticed that the Phoenix Clan woman was talking to the communications officer.

"This is going to be a long mission," Avries thought with a sigh.

The weeks passed by quickly and the drills seemed to pull the crew closer together, and soon the mission date arrived. They were still short a few ships, but weren't really essential till the home base was established. Avries stepped out of his office onto the bridge. When he first arrived the bridge's atmosphere was calm and easy. Now it had the feeling of subdued controlled chaos. This made Avries smile as he slipped into his chair.

"Status report."

"All sections report ready sir," his XO responded beside him.

"Alright. Helm, undock us from the station and bring us about."

"Aye sir," the helmsman replied.

Several thumps could be heard through the front of the ship as the docking ports unlocked and moved away. A low vibration could be felt through the deck plates as the ship four engines came to life. Slowly, the ship backed away from the station and turned around.

"Helm, set course for the jump point. Half thrust please."

"Aye sir. Course set, half thrust," the helmsman responded tapping in commands on his panel.

The ship moved off towards four waiting Carrier-class ships that were in a circle formation. Ordinarily when a ship enters or leaves zero-space, a field large enough to envelope the ship is erected allowing the ship to transit to and from. The Carrier-class is the only ship capable of extending its field to encompass another vessel.

The theory behind using the zero-space drive for traveling to an alternate universe was that the four ships would extend their fields to overlap the other. A warp vessel would fly through the middle at warp speeds and hopefully end up in another universe safely.

"We're at the specified coordinate's sir," the helmsman informed Avries.

"Very well helm, stand by. Communications, inform the Carrier ships that we are in position and waiting."

"Aye captain," he relayed the message. A moment later four beeps flashed on his display. "Sir, the ships have acknowledged and are now extending their fields."

"Confirmed, I'm reading a full overlap between them and its reading stable," the XO said reading over the science officer's shoulder.

"Very well. Helm, take us through at warp one" said Avries.

"Warp one, aye."

The crew felt a subtle change of the vibrations in the deck plating as the warp coils accelerated the ship towards and through the field at warp.

On passing through, the ships velocity suddenly increased and lurched back to a stop, throwing everyone forward.

"Report!" Avries shouted climbing back into his chair.

The Operations officer staggered back to his seat and took a second to look over the information pouring in on his screen, "Compartments nine through twelve have lost power, and weapons by those sections are also offline. There's some buckling in the warp coils. No injuries reported."

Avries rubbed his jaw from the fall, "Helm, what's our position?" when she didn't answer, Avries repeated his question.

"...I'm not sure sir. We're not in zero-space but, we aren't in normal space either," she finally said.

"On screen," Avries told her.

The screen flickered on to show a large tunnel with various shades of blue, random snake-like energy strings were moving along the outer edges. A large sun-like light source could be seen presumably at the tunnels end.

The whole thing reminded Avries of a hyperspace corridor used by the Archaic species for FTL travel. However what he saw here looked almost organic. Space life forms were only theorized to exist, "Science, can you determine if we are in some sort of life form?"

"I don't have sufficient data to make any guess' sir. I'm not picking up any organic materials, carbon based or silicon. This whole area is flooded with tachyon particles. I'm sorry sir."

"No need to apologize. I don't think anyone really knew what was going to happen. Helm, set a course for the end of this tunnel. Make your speed one quarter thrust. I don't want to run into anything by accident in here."

"Yes sir, one quarter thrust," the helmsman answered.

As the ship moved forward, the crew was able to restore primary power to three of the damaged compartments. Avries was in his office talking to commander Noel about the repairs.

"So, how long till weapons are restored? Avries asked his XO.

"I've been told it will take approximately ten hours for complete repairs of the turrets. We can probably get them up and firing in five. Just as long as we don't rely on them exclusively," Noel answered.

Avries only grunted in reply as he looked over the damage reports of the warp coils. Two weeks of repairs to return then to specs, four days if he wanted warp seven. Till repairs were completed, the ship will only make warp five. His armguard beeped, "Yes?"

"Sir? Sensors have detected an aperture opening ahead. It could be a way out."

"On my way."

Avries and Noel exchanged a look before moving to the bridge. The helmsman brought the ship to a halt just before the opening.

Avries looked around the bridge, then at the screen, "Science, is there any chance the ship may be damaged if we pass through it?"

"None that I can detect sir," he responded. His uncertainty was clearly shown in his voice.

"Well hell, it beats sitting here waiting for something to happen. Helm, take us in."

"Yes Captain," she replied.

Slowly, the ship moved forward. It was as if the ship was emerging from a fog as the stars came into view.

"Contact! There's a large structure ahead of us," the tactical officer warned. Everyone looked to the screen and saw what looked to be a large spindle wheel with six large fingers jutting above and below as if it were ready to grab something.

Avries got up from his chair and walked to the upper section of the bridge behind his chair, "Communications, open a hailing frequency."

"Aye sir," he responded.

The Phoenix Clan Woman moved to Avries side. When he gave her a questioning look, she responded with, "Just in case the translation software isn't up to the job," she smiled.

"They're responding," the Comm. officer said.

A second later, the screen changed. At first, Avries thought the woman was human until he noticed the ridges on her nose. After a slight hesitation, Avries spoke.

"I am Captain Ryan Avries of the D.E.S. science vessel Hathaway 2. To whom am I addressing?"

The woman seemed surprised to see him. Avries wondered if it was because she's never seen a human before or if it was how they arrived here. The woman quickly regained her composure though.

"I'm Colonel Kira, commander of Deep Space Nine."


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for reading my story so far. I plan to give more details as the story progresses such as the Pheonix Clan woman some of which is hinted at in this chapter. And for the other question, the humans are from another dimention where aside from some of the tech, they have very little in common with the trek universe. Even the tech that is similar is employed in a different mannor from most technology in the Trek universe. Thanks for reading and I look forward to more reviews so without further adiou on with chapter 2.

* * *

"Hello Colonel, I have been instructed by my superiors to open a peaceful dialog with your government for the purposes of safe travel and space exploration. With your permission, I would like to discuss the details in person," the captain said.

Kira swallowed before responding, "That's... quite a request. Please wait a moment." Kira motioned to the ensign to suspend the commlink. "Is the Vulcan Ambassador still on board?" she asked her.

"He's on a transport waiting to return to Bajor ma'am," she responded.

"Well have someone go get him and inform him on our situation."

"Yes ma'am"

Kira looked briefly at a display of the stations docking ring then at another screen showing the docking ports on the ship. She then nodded to the ensign to resume communications. A second later the screen changed back to show the two people standing on the bridge.

"Alright Captain Avries, you can dock at upper-pylon three. A beacon will direct you."

"Thank you Colonel. Before we arrive would you have some medical staff standing by? I only ask this to insure that we aren't carrying any biologics that would be harmful to your people."

Kira only smiled faintly not really sure how to properly respond, "... Thank you captain, Deep Space Nine out." The screen winked back to the view of the ship before shutting off completely.

Kira let out a long heavy sigh. "Kira to Bashir," she said taping her combage.

A few seconds later he responded, "Bashir here."

"Can you meet me at the upper-pylon three docking port? Oh and bring your med kit."

"Is there someone injured?"

"No, we have visitors that came through the wormhole. They insist that we give them a medical scan for our safety."

"On my way," Bashir said.

Cocking her head while rolling her eyes, Kira walked up to the turbolift. "Upper-pylon three," she told the computer.

An instant later the lift was carrying her down through the station stopping briefly at the promenade to admit a very displeased Vulcan.

"I trust you can explain why my return to Bajor was delayed?" Ambassador Savan said with distaste.

Kira scoffed inwardly, Vulcan's might claim to have rid their emotions in favor of logic, but the only emotion she never seen them display was honest happiness. "A new ship has come through the wormhole. I thought it'd be in the best interest of first contact to have an ambassador on hand. And since you were the only Federation ambassador on board I thought it would be appropriate to have you with us."

"Logically," he responded with a thinly veiled patronizing tone.

Kira bite her tongue to force herself to stop before she said something she'd regret later. It'd be useless to argue with any Vulcan let alone Savan and remained silent for the rest of the ride up.

Bashir greeted them at the turbolift doors, his fingers thumbing the med kit in his hands, "Colonel, Ambassador," he said curtly.

Kira returned his greeting with a nod while Savan responded with an audible sigh of displeasure. Moving on, they were soon waiting in front of the docking port. A Bajoran engineer stood by the door controls.

"Port seals are good and the airlock is pressurized," the engineer told them.

"Okay, open it," Kira said taking a quick breath.

The Bajoran tapped a few buttons and the massive doors turned revealing three people standing in the airlock. Kira immediately recognized Captain Avries and the woman in light blue robes from earlier, the third being unknown to her.

"Permission to come aboard, Colonel?" the captain asked.

"Of course, allow me to introduce Ambassador Savan, he's a representative of Federation interests."

"The United Federation of Planets," Savan said dryly as if to correct the colonel.

"Greetings Ambassador, I am captain Ryan Avries. I have been selected to represent the "Descended Earth Systems" of my government," Avries said while extending a hand.

Savan looked at Avries' hand with all the emotionless distaste he could bring forth with his raised eyebrow. Fearing he somehow insulted the diplomat; Avries quickly returned his hand to his side.

In an effort to move pass the growing awkward moment Avries then introduced his accompanying crew. "This is my communications specialist," he said referring to the woman. "And this is me science officer Matthew Ridge."

Kira was confused, "Forgive me for asking, but why did you introduce your science officer by name but not her?" she asked referring to the smiling woman.

"My People have long ago grown out of the use for personal names for ourselves," she said. "In fact, we have long ago forgotten what to call our species," she added.

Avries then spoke up, "We have since our first encounter taken to calling their species the "Phoenix Clan" in due part to their biology."

"Interesting," Savan said.

Kira turned in surprise to Savan. He never before went beyond the duties and protocols of his position.

"Well captain, if you would follow us, we have a room set up so we can talk in private," Kira said abruptly.

"Before we go, maybe we should have your doctors check us over just in case," Avries said.

"Oh, right. Um, this is doctor Bashir. He's in charge of the stations infirmary."

Bashir nodded and waved his hand slightly, still with his med kit in hand.

"Doctor, if you would?" Kira urged.

Bashir walked to Avries and pulled out his medical tricorder and proceeded to scan him. "I'm not detecting any exotic pathogens. You seem to be in perfect health. Nothing but some scaring and... My god…"

"What is it Bashir? What's wrong?" Kira asked worriedly.

"... Nothing colonel, it's just that according to these scans, Captain Avries had been impaled. There's scar tissue on the spinal cord and on the heart. You should have been either dead or paralyzed! What happened to cause these injuries?" he asked.

"It's an old war wound, I got careless and paid for it when I boarded an enemy ship," Avries said grimly, "Sufficed to say, I got lucky in my recovery."

"Well, the captain checks out," Bashir said moving over to the Phoenix woman. "Hmm... your core body temperatures higher than most species I've come across, but I'm not detecting any viruses or biological infections," he said astonishingly.

"It is a natural side effect to how my people live," she said. She seemed to be in a permanently good mood which Bashir found infectious.

"Well beyond that, I'm not detecting any pathogens ever having been in your system."

"Thank you doctor, and by the way, the scans tickled."

Bashir just smiled, not sure if she was joking or not, as he stepped over to the science officer to scan him. As he ran the tricorders removable sensor over him he became perplexed. It was a minute later when he realized.

"Excuse me, but are you an android?"

"Well we prefer the term "ArtForm", a sort of short term for artificial form, but yes I guess I am one. Though it wasn't something I chose to have happen."

"Okay. Colonel they all check out."

"Alright, if you'll follow me please," Kira said. Before turning to the turbolift, she noticed some sort small cylinder-like weapon holstered on the hips of the captain and his science officer. "Actually before we go though, I'm going to have to ask you to leave any weapons you have on your ship. We don't allow weapons on the station unless given special permission."

"An understandable precaution," Avries said pulling out his weapon and handing it to Matthew who then reentered the ship.

While they waited for him to return, Kira looked at Avries who was absently flicking his empty holster with his thumb. Avries looked over then down at his hand and immediately stopped.

"Sorry, Its been standard practice on all vessels to be armed since the war in my universe began. I feel a little underdressed," he said sheepishly.

Kira could somewhat understand having spent much of the Dominion war with some sort of weapon, especially when she was helping the resistance in Cardasia with Domar and Garak. She had to admit on some days she felt naked herself without the reassuring weight of a phaser on her hip. Soon enough their science officer returned and she lead them to the turbolift.

Avries was startled somewhat by the design while they rode it down. While there was a door at each level, the car itself didn't have its own set which was clearly evident as he watched each level pass as they descended. Avries wasn't sure if it was a design oversight or if it had been intention, either way, Avries made sure to keep a safe distance away from the opened frame.

When the turbolift stopped, they stepped out and walked through the dark colored corridors passing the odd person now and then. They had made so many twists and turns that Avries felt as if he were in a maze till the colonel stopped in front of a door. Walking through it as it opened Avries and Matthew stopped just inside the room staring at the window across the room as the door behind them slid shut.

"Is there a problem?" Kira asked standing at the head of the table which dominated the room.

"... No, there's no problem. It's just been awhile since I've seen an actual window in space," Avries said as he unconsciously rubbed his empty holster again. He, his science officer, and the Phoenix clan woman sat down facing the window.

"Well captain Avries," Savan began, "I believe it is only logical to start by telling us of this war you were apparently involved with."

"First of all, It was more of a battle for survival against a race called the Jikoran..."

"How can you be sure of that captain? Perhaps it may have been a case of miscommunication on your governments part," Savan accused with a raised eyebrow."

"Forgive me for saying so Ambassador," Avries said stressing Savan's title, "But you're just a damn go between, an appointed "dignitary', who's too caught up in his cushy job to care about anyone else but your own damn safety! I was there at one of the first colonies to get hit. We hailed them and they answered with plasma fire. Tell me. Have you ever tried to defend a colony against FIFTEEN HUNDRED ships with only a handful of small ships? Seventeen thousand colonist and we only managed to evacuate a few hundred before we were overrun and had to retreat. The last transmission from the colony was from a scared little girl asking if someone could save her from the monsters. Now, if you insult me like that again, I WILL knock you on your pointy eared ass!" Avries shouted down a Savan then sat down again.

Taken aback Kira kept glancing at Savan and Avries until she stood up, "Ambassador Savan can I speak to you out in the hall a moment?" Kira asked.

Savan let out an annoyed sigh before replying, "If you must Colonel"

Once they were out in the hall Kira spun around and spoke in a low hiss, "Alright Savan, what the hell was that you just pulled in there?"

"Colonel?" Savan asked not sure of the nature of the question.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about! From what Avries just told us, he and his people barely held onto their lives against what seems to be impossible odds. And the first thing that comes out of your mouth is questioning whether they started it?"

"Colonel, as the Federation ambassador to Bajor it is my duty to analyze whether diplomatic ties can be conducted and sustained. Since I have been posted here I have read through the station logs and found them... "Interesting"."

"What do you mean "interesting"?"

"During the relatively short time the station has been under Bajoran control there have been a continuing string of incidents on board the station involving various plagues, one of which the Bajoran are accountable for, insurrections, numerous coup attempts as well as alien invasions and finally a reemergence of extinct species. I believe one of those were Tribbles colonel. But to list an incident related to this situation I would have to refer the time when some of the senior staff, yourself included, interacted with a largely hostile parallel universe. Some of those inhabitants stole highly classified technology. It is only logical to assume a similar stance that these people are hostile to some degree if they do come from an alternate universe. Do you agree with my assumption colonel?" Savan asked finally.

Kira opened her mouth to rebuttal Savan's "theory" then closed it. As much as she hated to admit when Savan of all people raised a valid point but she didn't want to give the smug Vulcan the satisfaction of it so instead she changed tact. "Even if that were a possibility, do you really think what you just said in there was "diplomatic"?" Kira asked.

She smiled inwardly as Savan stood mentally going over what he had said in the briefing room and had to concur with the Colonel. The bluntness of his inquiry had more than likely made any future possible negotiations more strenuous then before.

"Very well colonel. I will use more carefully chosen words when speaking to these humans. Shall we return to the... discussion?" he asked.

"No!," Kira said sharply, "You just proved how useless you are in there. Now, where would the "logic" be if I let you back in there?"

"Colonel, regardless of what had transpired in there and what your "instincts" or emotions may be telling you, if this is truly is a first-contact scenario then it is by Federation directives that I must remain present until the appropriate personnel arrive to take over," Savan said with almost an air of smugness having used Federation charters and simple logic to out maneuver Kira at her own game.

Kira just smiled before responding, "Well then, I guess it's just too bad that Bajor still isn't officially part of the Federation then."

Whatever satisfaction Savan allowed himself immediately dropped.

Kira continued, "You said it yourself that Bajor won't be inducted until you were completely satisfied, and so far despite our best efforts, you haven't given us the go ahead. And just so we're clear. This is now officially a Bajoran affair. So if you want to join us you'll have to speak to our ambassador." As she finished, she caught a passing Bajoran deputy, "Please escort Ambassador Savan to his ship. He's ready to go back to Bajor."

The deputy responded with a curt, "Yes ma'am," and stood by in the direction of the closes turbolift. Savan gave Kira a look of disdain before turning to follow the deputy.

Kira waited until Savan was out of sight before letting out a long satisfied sigh. Turning around she reentered the briefing room, "Sorry for taking so long. I "regret" that ambassador Savan for the rest of this meeting." she stated as she returned to her seat.

"No apologies are necessary. Your doctor was just telling us about the Prophets that inhabit the wormhole," Avries said.

"Well I'd hate to interrupt a topic like that but I'm afraid we really must continue. So, you were saying about the Jikoran?"

"Yes, well as I was saying, the Jikoran are essentially like locust but instead of consuming resources they willfully fight any type of perceived resistance. Some evidence we've collected suggests that the Jikoran are responsible for the extinction of the previous dominant species on my planet. Information recovered from a few ship boarding's indicating that they move from one side of the galaxy to the other doing this. Beyond that there's not much else we can tell you about their culture," Avries said as he made a motion to hold something in front of him and a green translucent holographic pad appeared in his hand, small strings of light could be seen dancing back and forth from his arm brace.

While thumbing through the display, Avries continued, "The Jikoran usually stands between seven and eight feet tall and resemble an Earth mythological creature called orcs. The only exception is that Jikoran do not initially seem to have an epidermis layer." The holo pad in his hand changed to a 3-D rotating statue of a Jikoran soldier to which Avries tossed onto the briefing table where it grew to presumably actual size. The still rotating image showed that it indeed seemed to be without any skin thusly showing the fibers of its muscles. The only clothing it was wearing seemed to be a mismatched stitching of various metal plates for armor, some of which had alien writing that didn't match those found on other parts of its armor. In its hands was a large rifle that could arguably be called a cannon. Following the length of the barrel above and below it were two blades that ended seven centimeters past the nozzle of the weapon in deadly sharp points.

Avries continued, "Its weapon fires a unique form of energy which seems to have a slight numbing effect to prevent the initial shock of impact. This is probably so they can prolong the battle..."

Bashir interrupted, "Why would they want to prolong a battle? It seems so unnecessary."

"Their entire culture and society is based around fighting the opposition. They probably figure that since they already have a numerical advantage then it wouldn't be "sporting"."

Bashir and Kira each gave one another a look before nodding for Avries to continue.

Avries again pointed at the rifle, "From studying the weapon we found that it can't be rearmed in the field so once the energy in the weapon is depleted it's then used completely as a melee weapon to... Great effect," Avries finished while rubbing his chest remembering his injury.

He was about to continue when he saw the wormhole opening. Kira turned to look and watched as a Federation ship come through heavily damaged and on fire where breaches in the hull could be seen.

Standing up, Kira tapped her commbadge, "Kira to ops, report!" she ordered worriedly.

"Ma'am, it's the Melbourne. We're trying to beam out the crew but we only got eight of the crew out, radiation is preventing us from getting a lock on the rest."

"Damn it," Kira spat.

Avries brought his wrist up and activated the comm unit in his arm guard, "Hathaway. I need an emergency transport on the crew of the ship that just came through."

"Aye sir," there was a pause, "Twelve are aboard, adjusting for the radiation, stand by."

The nacelle struts connecting the saucer to the secondary hull exploded severing the ship. The engineering section blew up the resulting explosion breaking apart the saucer section.

"Hathaway, report!"

"We only got two more out before the ship exploded sir. We sent them to the medical compartment."

"Are they alright?"

"Some burns and concussions. Some are psychologically scared and had to be sedated. One was shouting about something before he was put under. Something about a "Borg""

Kira and Bashir just looked at each other realizing what was to come.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello all. I am very sorry to all those who've been keeping an eye on this story. the workload at my job unexpectedly increased 10-fold and coupled with annoying writers block exhuastion on my time off, real life stuff, and getting distracted by some other story ideas that I'll eventually post here.**

**Anyways, the third chapter is finally up but before we get back into the story, here's some trivia I promised before each chapter:**

**As you have all know if you read the story thus far I have mentioned the words "arm guard" a few times. the arm guard, or "bracer" as they'll now be called since it sounds better, is a piece of armor that covers the fore arm on a persons arm. It's used for defence when a Jikoran soldier decides to get in a persons face with the melee action. since this was a nessesary requirement, as I'm sure most don't want to get hacked to pieces, technology was incorperated into it. the bracer also now acts as a communication device and is the D.E.S's equivilent of the PADD that is commonly used in star trek.**

**That's it for now. please review as I enjoy reading them. and as always, if you have a question about D.E.S. tech or other things related to the universe then by all mean ask and I'll do my best to answer them. I'll give more info on the Pheonix Clan in the next chapter when she chats with some of our fav. trek heroes. so without further adiou, un with the story. **

After the realization of a possible Borg invasion sunk in, Kira and Bashir both started for the door.

"I'm sorry Captain but I'm afraid we're going to have to save these talks of another time. If you'll come with me, I'll escort you back to your ship," Kira said as she waited by the door.

Bashir stood up as well and stopped in the doorway and looked back, "Sorry to run, but I should get back to the infirmary. It was a pleasure to meet you captain," he said shaking Avries hand and nodding towards the Phoenix woman.

"It was a pleasure meeting you too doctor," Avries replied.

Bashir nodded and walked off hurriedly down the corridor. Kira began moving as well leading Avries and his team to a turbo lift.

As they walked Avries turned his head to Kira, "So, what kind of species are the Borg?" he asked.

"From what I've heard, Borg aren't really a singular race but a bunch of different ones forced into submission by using cybernetic technology to erase a persons individuality. A friend I worked with told me stories of how just one ship walked through their fleets and made it all the way to earth," she said grimly as they entered the turbo lift. "Upper-pylon three," she told the computer.

The computer chirped a reply and the turbo lift hummed as it carried them back through the station to Avries' ship.

Kira continued, "This happened twice and both times the Federation got lucky and managed to defeat them with probably seconds to spare."

Avries thought about what Kira said. "Reminds me of how our war went, a lot of luck and desperation more than anything. Looking back, I'm surprised we survived it as well as we did. Being so outnumbered on every front we had to develop both amazing and terrible technologies to escape extinction," Avries said introspectively.

Kira nodded in agreement and remained silent the rest of the ride to the Hathaway.

As Bashir entered the infirmary and was greeted by a nurse who handed him a padd. Reading through it as he walked he asked the status of the survivors.

"They're all in some stated of severe malnutrition. We had to sedate two to calm them down. A few have some bruises; we're not sure how those happened. Aside from those we had to sedate, the rest don't seem to be aware of their surroundings," the nurse said with worry in her eyes.

"Well let's not push them anymore than we have to and let them rest for now. Get them started on an intravenous nutritional supplement to build their strength back up. I also want tissue samples taken from each of them; scan the samples for any virals and nanites. I want all the bases covered and with the possibility of the patients having encountered the Borg, I don't want to take any chances."

"Yes doctor," the nurse said before returning to her assigned tasks.

Bashir sat down at his desk with a sigh reading more of the initial reports. If the mental instability of just two survivors were any indication of the rest then they all will be busy for some time to come.

"Ezri isn't going to like this," he muttered with a sigh. Looking back to his padd he heard a very familiar voice behind him.

"Hello Julian, have I come at a bad time?"

Bashir spun around in his chair and looked up at his friend, "Miles! What the hell are you doing here?" he asked getting up to shake his hand, "I thought you were back on Earth teaching."

"Kieko had a symposium on Bajor to go to and I thought I'd tag along and catch up on old times. You see, the beauty of bein' a teacher of my standing is that you get to make your own curriculum. I told my class to get into groups and design a more efficient warp engine from the ground up. I told them that we'd build the best one and test it, providing it passed all the safety requirements first. I figure they should be done when I got back." He looked at the full beds, "I see that you have your hands busy right now but how about on your brake we run over to the holosuite and defend the Alamo."

Bashir let out a longing sigh, "Miles you have no idea how much I want to join you but I'm swamped. I've got patients that need my help, we've got people from another reality asking to explore the Alpha Quadrant and to top it off we might get invaded from the Borg in the next few days. You just picked one heck of a time to visit."

"What do you mean the Borg? They've always tried to get to Earth, what could they possibly want with Bajor?"

"Look the only hint of this came from a delirious survivor. There's no actual proof so far and..,"

Bashir was cut off by a comm. chime followed by the sound of Kira's voice, "Kira to Bashir!"

"Bashir here," he responded looking up at the ceiling.

"I need you to come up to the ship at upper-pylon three with your surgical kit. One of the survivors is a Vulcan and their staff doesn't have the medical knowledge to help her."

"On my way," Bashir said while grabbing a medical kit.

"Their science officer will meet you at the airlock," Kira added.

"Understood," acknowledged Bashir as he walked out the infirmary, O'Brien falling into step behind him.

As they made their way to the turbolift Bashir turned to his friend, "And just where do you think you're going Miles?" he asked.

"Just out of curiosity," he replied sidestepping the question, "What was the name of the ship the survivors were on?"

"...The Melbourne, why?"

"I used to have a friend back on the Enterprise before I transferred to DS9. After the war ended, he told me he got a posting on the Melbourne. And if we are dealin' with the Borg, I'd like to know firsthand in case in case I need to get my family out of harm's way."

Bashir could hardly fault him for wanting to take care of his family but... "Miles, the ship we're... That I'm about to board isn't a Federation ship," he tried to explain.

"You mean the ship that looked kind of like an exaggerated fly swatter?" O'Brien asked as they entered the turbolift.

"Yes, I just don't think it's the right thing to do," Bashir paused to tell the computer their destination, "And besides I really don't think they're going to let you tag along just because we haven't seen each other for awhile."

O'Brian looked thoughtfully for a moment, "I suppose your right...How's Ezri these days?" he asked changing the subject.

"Well I can't complain we've both been so busy since the war ended for obvious reasons. Come to think of it, we haven't been alone together since after the end of the war celebrations."

"Well that's a bit of a dry spell if I ever heard one," O'Brian said.

Bashir only rolled his eyes at his friend's slanted grin. The turbolift then stopped at their appointed destination and they walked out. As they approached, they saw Matthew Ridge, the ships science officer, standing opposite to the Bajoran engineer beside the doors.

"Hello chief. It's good to see you back," the engineer said to O'Brian as he and Bashir reached the heavy door.

"I'm not back. I'm on vacation," O'Brian said although not completely convinced himself.

"If you say so chief," she replied before looking off.

Matthew turned to Bashir showing him a holo pad with a picture of a Vulcan woman, "This is the one we need your medical assistance for," he said.

Bashir studied the photo for a moment but since it was mostly an upper torso shot all he could see were some bruises, none of which looked life threatening. Still at least he knew which techniques and tools to use. "All right, let's go then shall we?"

Matthew stopped Bashir as he started to walk forward, "Just a moment Dr. Bashir. Is he your assistant?" he asked referring to O'Brian.

"Oh... No he's a friend on a visit. He used to be the stations chief engineer a few months ago."

O'Brian gave a quick wave and a short but cheerful hello, "If it's alright with you, I'd like to come along. Promise I won't touch anything."

The science officer stared at him for a second before replying, "Alright, you can come aboard. However I can't allow you on with your carry on."

"My what? Oh my bag," O'Brian said looking down at his bag still slung over his shoulder. He looked around for a place to leave it before looking at the engineer, "I don't suppose you could hold on to my bag till I get back," he asked her.

"Sure thing chief," she said taking in delight in teasing her old boss.

"Oh stop it," O'Brian said while handing over his bag and stepped in behind Bashir following the Science officer into his ship

As they walked through the ship O'Brian took note of the corridor design. The flooring consisted of thick panel grating probably for easy maintenance, his guess was confirmed when they passed a hallway and a group of engineers were working on a conduit in the exposed floor. On turning a corner, it was as if the corridor opened up. On the upper sections of either side were windows showing the arms of DS9 around him and Bajor's sun to his left. O'Brian moved closer to the window able to peer down at the stations rings below and stepped back after feeling a sense of vertigo.

"Is there something wrong Mr...?"

It took O'Brian a moment to realize the officer was asking him a question and a moment longer to realize he hadn't given his name at the docking port. "Oh, my name's Miles O'Brian. I was looking out the window and got a little dizzy that's all."

"These aren't windows, they're holographic panels designed to emulate windows as well as regular data terminals," he said quickly before stopping abruptly in front of a set of sliding doors. A sign above the door read "Compartment Five" a smaller display underneath it read "Medical Ward".

"We're here," Ridge said as the doors slid open and they passed through an airlock-type system and finally entered the medical ward where a man was waiting for them.

"Well, it's about time you got here," the man said looking at them.

"Dr. Bashir this is Dr. Liense, our ships chief medical officer," Ridge said introducing them.

They exchanged pleasantries and carried on following Dr. Liense to a series of beds.

"Your people have certainly been through a lot," Liense said then gestured to the patients, "These four were wearing EVA suits and were entering the beginning stages of hypoxia. They should be fine and ready to return to your station in an hour or so. These eight nearly died from hypothermia and more than a few of them had frostbite... They all have deep physiological trauma ranging from hysterics to completely shutting down. I can release sixteen into your care in the next hour, the rest I'd like to keep overnight for observation," Liense said taking a breath.

Bashir looked over the survivors nodding in approval of the doctor's care and assessment.

"If the patients are in this great care, then what need do you have of my skills?" Bashir asked.

Liense started to lead them to a separate section of the room at the far corner, "Well, I was only this successful because most of the patients are human. A few alien strands in some of their blood but still human," he said as they entered the room.

When Bashir looked at the bed he saw a Vulcan woman in restraints and immediately opened his med kit pulling out his tricorder. Even though his tricorder would tell him soon enough he asked anyways, "What are her injuries?"

"A heavy concussion, a crack elbow along with five ribs, two of which had broken and punctured the intestinal track and what I can only assume to be the liver. I was able to reset the broken ribs but the resulting punctures caused an infection." Liense said grimly.

"Why haven't you given her any medication for the infection?" Bashir asked as he pulled out a hypo spray and loaded it with a clear blue liquid before injecting it into her neck.

"She's the first of her species I've ever seen. Without the proper information I wouldn't know what would actually work or what would kill her. And I won't risk a patient's life unless absolutely necessary, and even then it'd have to be a damn good reason," Liense said. "She was one of the last two we got off the ship before it went."

Bashir paused, "Where's the other one?"

Liense gave a deep sigh, a grim look on his face, "Follow me," he said and lead them out of the Vulcan's room to another labeled "Intensive Care". As they entered they saw a large clear tube big enough to hold a person in it and sure enough there was. However the person inside was a grotesque mess of one. The entire front half of the person looked like a freshly cured raison, red instead being the dominate colour, there were a few slivers or streaks of the persons face left untouched suggesting an attempt to use his arms to shield himself against harm. The man was naked save for a black strip that ran across the midsection of the tube to preserve whatever was left for modesty. Bashir frozed as soon as he laid eyes on the body. "No, not a body, a patient," he forced himself to think.

O'Brian had a bit of a delayed reaction from walking behind Bashir but frozed as well. When he saw the man lying in the tube only able to utter an, "Oh my god."

Liense checked the readouts on the life support systems before turning back to his two guests."Over ninety-seven percent of his front has suffered from deep plasma burns. The extent of which suggests he may have been standing in front of a plasma conduit when it blew up on him. He may have stood at the initial point that ultimately destroyed the ship."

Bashir finally took a step forward, "How is he still alive?"

"My initial assessment when I saw him was that he was deceased but... Then he... Looked at me," Liense said painfully, pausing a moment to collect himself, I can only guess that he has an incredibly strong will to live. I had him placed in the chamber to prevent any infections and placed him in a medically induced coma..."

"Why do that?" O'Brian asked suddenly.

"At this level of injury the nerves he had left would be constantly inflamed and with his system swimming in adrenaline that if I applied to much sedative he would die. I was going to put him on a stem cell regeneration therapy," he turned to Bashir, "Unless you have a better treatment to repair the damage?"

Bashir thought a moment, "How long will he have to be on your treatment?"

"With this level of damage I would say approximately a full month. I'll keep him in a coma for at least a week but if we start now then I insist he remain on the ship for twenty-four hours," He said.

"I'll leave him in your care for now but I will expect progress reports and the right to include any treatments of my own to accelerate his recovery."

"Fair enough," Liense said as he turned back to the tube to begin treatment.

"So now what?" O'Brian asked. "If this was caused by the Borg than it's probably safe to assume they're on their way here."

"And with the survivors all catatonic or worse, we won't know what to expect when they come through the wormhole," Bashir finished.

Liense looked up from the display, "...Before I put this one under he was trying to tell me something but because of his injuries he only managed a few gurgles."

"Well what good does that do us?" O'Brian asked more than a little angry.

"We have a way of communicating without interfering with his recovery," Liense lead on and brought up a holographic display from his bracer. "Svetlana, are you working on anything important right now?"

A few moments later a stand offish feminine voice responded, "Oh, you know, just straightening out the warp engine coils nothing important. Why?"

Ignoring the sarcasm, Liense continued. "I have an injured patient with possible vital information so I need access to combat-type Artform in diagnostic mode."

There was another long pause indicating her thinking it over, "Alright, the engines are okay for now, I just don't like leaving something broke half-fixed. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Liense acknowledged and let go of the "display" which faded from existence. He then turned to the display over the tube and tapped in several commands. A scanner bar slid from the edge and rest above the man's forehead and activated, a beam of light began sweeping across his head.

"What does that device do?" Bashir asked.

"To put it in simple terms, I'm taking a photograph of his personality," Lienes said. Seeing that Bashir and O'Brian didn't seem to get it he continued, "Basically, I'm copying his surface memories and will load them into an Artform. The new "him" will have a sense of who he is but won't be able to recall any specific details of his life unless he was thinking about it during the scan."

"So you are hoping that he will remember details about what happened to the crew in the Gamma Quadrant," Bashir finished.

"That's the hope," Liense confirmed with a sigh as he looked over the comatose patient.

"I don't like it," O'Brian said with a clear hint of anger, "You just can't take someone's memories and stick them in another body and expect everything to be rosy afterwards." He remembered when he was kidnapped to make a duplicate to assassinate key dignitaries. The plot failed but he still felt violated by the act.

Just then the door behind them slid open to let through a small woman pushing a table in. On it looked to be a helmet of a futuristic knight. "So Dr, who are your new friends?" she asked Liense.

"This is Dr. Bashir, the chief medical officer of the station. And this is... I'm sorry, I don't think we were introduced ourselves," Liense said looking at O'Brian.

"The name's Miles O'Brian. I used to be the stations chief engineer," he said shaking Liense hand and Svetlana's.

"Well I never figured you were a stowaway, at least not a good one. My Name's Cassandra Svetlana but you can call me Cassi. And it so happens that I am the ships chief engineer. Not to brag but I'm probably on a more intimate level with the Hathaway's systems than you are with your spouse," she said coyly.

"She's one heck of a fire cracker," O'Brian thought.

"So!" Cassi said while clapping her hands, "Are we going to put the poor guy in or was this just an excuse to try and set me up?"

"I was just waiting on you," Liense replied.

They both went to work connecting relatively thick cables from the patient's tube to the Artforms head.

"Remember to keep the visual parameters at the standard setting," Liense cautioned Cassi.

"Yeah, yeah. Just let me do a check on the eyes first before you wake him up okay?" she replied. She then stuck a probe around the base of the head. Bashir and O'Brian saw its eyes light up. Each 'eye' had five thin rows of dotted lights. They started as white in colour then blue, green, red, then back to white before shutting off. "Checks are good," Cassi said.

"Remove the HUD as well," Liense told her. Cassi nodded and stuck the probe seemingly in the same place and nodded. Liense tapped some more commands into the nearby panel then looked to Bashir and O'Brian, "All right, he should be coming around in just a minute. Try not to inform him about his predicament. All we need is to get the information of what happened to his ship."

Bashir nodded in agreement immediatly while O'Brian just stood there for a moment before giving a hesitant nod. Just the robotic head showed signs of life. Its eyes slowly lit up until they were just as bright as when Cassi did her checks.

"Wha-Where am I?" it said in a sleepy voice as it tried to look around.

Bashir was surprised that its eyes seem to 'blink' periodically as if they were human. O'Brien was more shocked to recognize the voice of his old friend he had mentioned to Bashir earlier.

"Jimmy South is that you?" O'Brian asked him

"... Who's that?" he asked trying to look around with limited success.

"It's Miles remember? We used to run a transporter room back on the Enterprise," he told Jimmy.

Jimmy closed his "eyes", "It sounds so familiar but I can't remember," His "eyes" widen, "Why can't I remember?" he asked obviously scared.

Dr. Liense put his hand down by the robotic head as if to reassure a non-existent shoulder, "It's all right, you were pretty injured when we brought you aboard. You're currently in the medical ward on the Hathaway. We had some reluctance waking you because of your injuries but another survivor mentioned the Borg and figured we had to risk it."

Jimmy's eyes light up with hope, "I'm back? I made it back to..."

"To DS9, yes," Bashir finished for him.

Jimmy seemed elated to hear it and "closed" his eyes again.

"We're sorry to ask you this but what can you tell us about the attack?" Bashir asked.

Jimmy looked to the ceiling trying to remember, "... We were studying a species that had just entered the computer age when our escorts detected and engaged a hostile ship at the edge of the system. As we were breaking orbit, our comm. systems were overwritten and the Borg hailed us. Before we could get clear they destroyed one of our ships and put a tractor beam on us. If it wasn't for the other escort sacrificing themselves, we probably would've been assimilated."

He continued, "The captain ordered me to get the ship back to Federation space to warn everyone before the bridge was destroyed. I pushed the engines well past their limits and somehow the command pathways frozed."

"How'd you stop the ship before you reached the wormhole?" O'Brian asked.

"I took my chances and decreased power to the deflector dish. I hoped that enough space dust would disable the nacelles enough to take us out of warp, hopefully not too far from the wormhole; I guess it worked too well. What was left of the engineering crew and I had to manually regulate the main plasma flow. I-I can't remember anything after that," he said obviously trying to remember more.

"It's alright," Bashir reassured him, "Do you remember what the Borg ship looked like?"

"...All too well. I lost a lot of good friends to that ship," he spat the last word venomously.

Bashir nodded, "Thank you Jimmy," he told him then moved to dr. Liense and motioning to speak more privately with him. Once they were in a more secluded corner of the room he carried on, "I don't think we'll get any more out of him but I do have an idea. Can we use the memories recovered to show us an image of what he saw?"

"Of course, retrieving visual images from ArtForms was common practice during the war. However we never did this with natural memories, only those recorded while in the ArtForm. Natural memories aren't reliable since the perception of those change too often"

"Still, it would give us a reference to go on."

"Alright, after I retrieve the information should I reintegrate the memories back into the patient?"

"If it won't cause any adverse reactions then I don't see any reason why not."

They both nodded in agreement and returned to the others. Bashir stood by the ArtForm head while Liense went to the panel attached to Jimmy's containment tube.

Bashir looked down at the robotic head and gave it a reassuring look, "Thanks Jimmy, we'll put the information to good use." He then nodded to Liense.

"Wait!" Jimmy shouted, "Just how bad am I?"

Bashir gave a sorrow look to his real body then to Liense who began working on the panel before returning to the head, "Don't worry about it Jimmy. We'll get you back on your feet in no time."

Jimmy "blinked" as if he were feeling tired, "Okay," he said sleepily before "closing" his eyes. And then he was gone.

O'Brian stood by the head that held his friend not really sure what to feel as Bashir walked over to Liense. Cassi began packing the ArtForm's head up stooping long enough to let O'Brian sort himself out the silently left.

"His memories have been successfully reintegrated," Liense told Bashir.

He nodded, "Good, what about the memories concerning the Borg?" Bashir asked.

Liense pulled out a thumb-sized stick and handed it to Bashir, "It's all right here; I've copied whatever he could remember of his last mission onto the storage unit. Just to remind you, this is how he perceived things to happened and with the trauma he's been through I can't tell you how much of it will be truly accurate," Liense cautioned.

"It's still better than nothing at all. If you'll excuse us, I need to get this to the colonel," Bashir said as he grabbed the thumb drive. Getting O'Brian's attention they walked out of the medical ward where Matthew Ridge escorted them off the ship.

As Kira got off the turbolift at Ops she was greeted by the same timid ensign from earlier. Still unable to recall her name, and was too embarrassed to just ask the ensign her name, she called her by her rank, "What is it ensign?"

"Um, your guest, Miss Yates has left and returned to her ship. She said she'll try and visit again when things weren't so busy."

Kira shook her head reprimanding herself for forgetting all about her after the strange ship came through the wormhole. "Thank you ensign, is that all?" she asked.

"No, um, A Klingon task force arrived just before you came to ops. A general Dorn wants to speak with you after they receive clearance to dock,"

Kira groaned inwardly wishing the day was over, "Grant the generals ship clearance to dock away from the new ship. I'll be in my office."

"Yes maam," the ensign said before returning to her station.

Kira walked on to her office, as the doors closed behind her she let out another long-winded sigh. Rounding the desk and sat down in her chair pausing briefly to look at the lonely baseball on her desk before getting started on a mountain of padds that seemed to have magically appeared during the short meeting with captain Avries. Looking through, the padds contained general things like analytical data, engineering reports, and supply request. Kira sighed yet again and shoved the padd she was looking at back onto the pile before leaning back; sitting upright again she turned on her computer and sent a comm. request to Admiral Ross. While she waited, she got a raktajino from the replicator and sat down just as a tall Klingon entered her office.

After taking a sip of her drink she greeted the Klingon, "Welcome to Deep Space Nine, I thought Chancellor Martok was supposed to be coming."

"His presence was required to remain at the council. With the war over he is now free to root out the remaining allies of the now defunct Durras house," he said with a note of amusement.

"I thought I met all of Martoks' generals," Kira said waiting for her request to go through,

"I was honored soon after the final offensive on Cardasia. I'm known to my brothers as the Jem-hadar reaper."

"There's an interesting title," Kira said not really interested at all,

Dorn continued seemingly oblivious to Kira's sarcasm, "I was fighting on a now unimportant planet. After a glorious battle, a Starfleet lieutenant happened to say that I had taken as many lives as the grim reaper himself. Other of my Klingon Brethren happened to overhear his comment and have since taking to bestowing the title upon me to which Martok had taken notice and saw fit to honor me with a fleet to command," he said with a mark of pride in his voice.

"Uh huh," Kira replied taking a sip of her coffee.

Just then, the doors to her office slid opened to admit a shakened Bashir who handed Kira the memory unit.

"This is confirmed proof from one of the survivors that it was a Borg ship that attacked them. With the help of our guest, we were able to copy the survivor's memories of the event. With any luck, it will help us come up with a suitable defense."

"Thank you doctor," Kira said taking the unit and plugging it into her computer on her desk so she could watch it. As Bashir passed the Klingon general to leave, he suddenly grabbed the doctor's arm.

"Just what direction are these Borg heading in doctor?"

Bashir shook his arm loose, "I don't know. But if recent history has shown, they're probably coming in our direction."

"Then the Klingon Empire will have a chance to prove its mettle yet," seeing a look in the doctors eyes Dorn pulled him closer, "Do not mistake me for a fool doctor. I am well aware that a good deal of us won't survive the battle, but we will give those that will take our place a chance to finish what we started. That alone will insure our rightful place in Stovokor."

Bashir looked hard at the Klingon seeing only determination in his eyes, "I hope you're right," he told him before leaving.

Dorn began to laugh, "Your doctor is quite the pessimist. An annoying trait for a warrior but it suits him greatly. Before we leave I will share a bottle of my best blood wine with him."

Kira was about to say something but was interrupted by a chime on her computer letting her know her comm. request was put through. The image of Admiral Ross winked on," Colonel, what can I do for you?"

"I'm sorry to say this admiral, but we have a problem..."

Captain Avries was sitting in his office going over the information colonel Kira passed to him about the surrounding political landscape of the surrounding area. He was astonished of how many different species there were, even more so that they had all become a space faring culture at some level. Back in his own universe the only space faring species had been Humanity, Jikoran, Phoenix Clan, Archaic, and the most recently discovered Devoidians whose space travel was comparable to the Apollo rockets of Earth's history. Avries already had the comm. officer send the information to Zero-space command and decided to skim it before letting them know of a possible threat to the mission and the locals.

Commander Noel entered.

"It's amazing Noel, dozens of space faring species thriving in the immediate area alone. If we were to scan this area in our universe we'd be lucky to find one or two still living in caves. But here, well it makes you wonder..." Avries said leaving his thought unfinished.

Noel cleared his throat, "On a different note, repairs have been completed to two of the four compartments and I'm told the turrets in those areas will be in perfect working order in the hour."

Avries nodded, "Have the communications officer set up a private channel to admiral Zroback at Zero-Space command in my office. It's time I updated him on our situation."

Noel nodded and left the captains office. Two minutes later the holo-window across from Avries desk blinked indicating an incoming call.

Turning toward the "window" Avries nodded and the image of the admiral sitting in his own desk appeared. "Captain! I was beginning to think I'd never get your report, I must say, I was quite surprised that so many species have FTL capabilities. I assume that you've established a dialogue with the locals and we can send our ships through to begin exploration?" he asked.

Avries looked down at his desk before answering the admiral, "Well yes and no admiral sir. We have established a somewhat friendly relation with the local species however they seem to be part of a larger... confederation."

The admiral cocked his head to the side, "In what way Avries?"

"I'm not too sure but I would say it's an equivalent to the U.N. structure of old Earth. The place we ended up at seems to be a transit hub."

"Is the region of space you're in under a territorial dispute?" he asked eyes narrowed.

"Not from what I've witnessed, however during the talks, a ship of theirs arrived delivering a message of immanent attack from a hostile force."

"Could it be their version of the Jikoran?" he asked dead serious.

"No, according to those I talked to. There's no indication whatsoever that they exist. But, from what I've been told these "Borg" as they call them, are incredibly powerful and I'd like to offer our assistance. It could give us a bargaining chip that would allow us to stay in this universe or help us later on if we need."

"Or it could open us up to invasion both in that universe and possibly our own." The admiral paused for a moment to think, "Exactly what were you hoping to bring to the fight?"

"A full tactical fleet geared for offensive combat would be preferable but I can make do with two Ascendant-class worships, six Fortress-class carriers and a defensive fleet of twenty Attack-class frigates."

"You don't ask for much do you Avries?" he asked sarcastically with no hint of amusement shown in his voice or on his face.

"I know it's a lot to ask for in a situation like this but from what they told me just one of these ships walked through their fleets to Earth."

"And yet they were able to stop them correct?"

"By a sheer miracle admiral sir."

"That's beside the case. And what if they or some other unknown force captures one of our ships and uses the zero-space drive from those ships and uses them to invade us directly! We were VERY fortunate to come out as well as we did from facing the Jikoran. Do you really want to put us back into that so soon?" he prodded.

Avries clenched his teeth and forced his hands to remain open on his desk, "Of course not admiral sir!" he said struggling to keep his voice calm.

"However, I will send the escort vessels through and have the other Discovery-class re-outfitted for carrier duties. Is that satisfactory captain?" the admiral asked.

Avries already knew the admiral wasn't asking, "What will the fighter complement be?" Avries asked although he had a feeling he already knew the answer."

"N-class fighter/bombers," he said flatly. Another hint this wasn't negotiable.

"I do have one request though admiral sir..." Avries asked knowing full well he was pushing his luck as it is. The admiral nodded. "I would also like the use of an orbital defense platform."

"Absolutely not! The weapons technology from.." he was cut off from someone getting his attention off screen. For three minutes he nodded and shook his head in the affirmative and negative. The few times he tried to speak he was immediately cut off. Avries only sat in his chair in confusion. If it were any other time he would have found the sight quite funny had it not been for the situation at hand. The admiral nodded for the last time before turning back to Avries with a sigh, "You can have the defense platform captain. But, we'll only send it on confirmation of the target. Not before. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, admiral sir. There is one thing though."

The admiral shifted in his seat, "What is it captain?" His patience was evidently wearing thin.

"I recommend you bring the ships here through standard zero-space transit. We incurred some damage when we arrived and some of our systems are still under repair."

"Thank you for the advisement captain. Before I forget, there is a last minute addition to the roster of the ships we'll send over. I'll have the list sent to you. Admiral Zroback, out!"

And with that the holo-window changed back to a view of the alien station. Avries leaned back in his chair pinching the bridge of his nose.

A minute later commander Noel entered "holding" a holographic display projected from his bracer and handed it to Avries. Taking it, the display flickered as it righted itself so Avries could read it. I took the liberty of looking over the list the admiral sent us and I'm sure two of the ships listed you'll find interesting."

"Oh really?" Avries said looking over the list. Some of the ships he recognized from previous battles during the war until... "The Ajax?"

"I thought you might perk up on that but the last two names raise some questions some concerns."

Avries read the next name, "The Absolon," Avries furrowed his brow, "The Absolon is one of the new Tracker-class ships. Why would the admiral send a ship powered by a zero-space drive? The admiral made it clear he didn't want to risk the chance of zero-space technology falling into the wrong hands."

Noel gave a quizzical shrug; "Well the ship does have warp engines but..." he trailed off not sure where he was going.

Avries gave a dismissive look before reading the last name, "The admiral must be joking. He can't seriously consider sending the Marigold on this kind of mission!"

The ship, another Attack-class frigate was built at the colony where it got its namesake. Its maiden voyage was a baptism of fire when the Jikoran invaded, swatting the colony defenses aside. Command considered the colony a loss shortly after two-thirds of the ground war was lost behind enemy lines. The plan was for reinforcements and the remnants of the colonies defensive fleet to rally in deep space between the next colony and the Jikorans to provide time for evacuation. However, the captain of the Marigold defied orders and urged the remnant forces to fight on. By the time reinforcements arrived, the only ship left in the colony fleet was the Marigold. Ground forces were barely holding on although without help, they were sure to lose. The battle to retake the colony lasted a grueling five eight days. Only just over six thousand civilians were rescued at the cost of the majority of the fleet of only eleven surviving ships that were in no ships that were in no shape for combat if the Jikoran decided to send more ships.

Command twisted the bitter win into an inspiring victory as being the first colony retaken and the Jikoran repelled. It inspired the other colonies to redouble efforts into the war effort and was arguably the turning point that ultimately saved the human race.

"Hmm... I hope this won't bite us in the ass," Avries said worriedly. The Marigolds gamble paid off despite the losses at the Marigold colony. Avries hoped her captain didn't decide to gamble in the upcoming battle.

**I hope you all thought it was worth the wait. Again, I'm sorry for taking so long. the next chapter will actually have adventure and action, finally. I do have a "small" request though. I am awful at coming up with alien names. So here's a chance for anyone who would like to put in an OC then I'll see about working them in. I need Bajoran, Klingon, and some Federation characters. I'm reasonably ok with the vulcan names for some reason but I'll accept those too. So if you have an OC you'd like to see in the story then PM me. remember to give me a description of the character so I can do them justice**


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